Railway tie or sleeper.



G. D. SMITH.

RAILWAY TIE 0E SLEEPER.

APPLICATION FILED 212.23, 1912.

1,032,567. Patented July 16, 1912.

@557 IrzmzzzZrr Ties or Sleepers,

"Ni I CHARLES n. sMIr-H, or IBIRMINGHAM,' ALABAMA, ASSIGNQR LAWSON ANDONE-FOURTH -'IO.ALVIN M.

ALABAMA;

narrmsra r are on sinners.

0F ONE-FOURTH T0 KYLE DOUGLAS, fBOTH QF 1,032,567. Specification ofApplication filed February as, 1912. Serial No.

retters t n I Patented-J uly 16, 1912.

crease.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES D. SMITH, citizen of the United States,residing at Birmingham, Alabama, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Railway of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in railway crossties or sleepers, and especially to those made of'reinforced concrete. I"1 The advantages of the reinforced concrete tie over wood, especiallyin'the matter of durability, is well known, but heretofore such concreteties have not gone into extensive use due to certain inherent defects intheir construction.

\I have aimed, in the present invention, to provide a concrete cross tiein which provision will be made for slight motion in-the ties'while thetrain is passing over them,

tacha'bly connected together .-by the rein forcing rods 2-- and' 2,which are embedded in the sections in the process of molding, and areprovided at their extremities with, hooks and eyes .3 and 4,respectively, by whlch the sections are detachably connected together.They-are further connected by a. p n 2" 'molded in and projecting fromone of thesections and engaging a corresponding recess in the othersection. The hooks and eyes ofthe two sets of rods are prefer,- ablyreversely arranged, that is, on one side of. thetie one rod 2 carriesthe hook, and theother 2 the eye, while'on the opposite side of the tiethe first named rod carries the eye and the second the hook. The hingedjoint formed bythe hook and eye connection comesdirectly beneath theline of contact between the abutting portions (2 and a, and this,together with the cut away portions-below the joint, enables the ends ofthus securing the equivalent of the slight elacticity-of the wood tie.

A further object is to provide a tie made of two parts which are exactduplicates of each other, and which Ina-v be shipped detached andreadily assembled, vthereby greatly facilitating the handling inshipment, the great we ght of the ordinary full length concrete tiebeing a'serious drawback. A further object is to provide a novel 5 formI of reinforcing means which also plays a part in securing the twosections of the tie together, and still another object is to provide, inconnection with a tie of this character, simple and eflicient means forsecur- 'ing the rails thereto.

With these andother objects in View, the invention consists in thenovelfeatures of construction and combination and arrangement of partshereinafter described and particularly defined in the appended claims Across tie constructed in accordance with my invention isillustrated inthe acc0mpanying drawings, in which-- Figure 1 is a plan view; Fig. 2 isa side .elevation-'; ,-and' Figs. 3 and 4 are detail views. Fig. 5. isa: View of a modified form. [Referring by reference characters to this.drawing, thenumerals 1 and 1* designate the two sections of the improvedcross tie, which are molded to be substantial dup1icates of" each other,and having abutting portions a and a", and lower cutaway porthe jointchairs, or rail joints, or plate.

BIRMINGHAM,

vided in this widened out portion, as indicatedbythe numeral 7, thesecross rods being arranged in pairs with the ends turned toward eachother to secure the anchoring efi'ect, asindicated'at 7?. When desired,cermm of the sections may be molded short on one. side, as indicated inFig. 5, whereby two ties may be placed close together at the, railjoint, the short wings serving to engage In order to secure the; railsto the ties, I provideeach section of the tie in molding with a recess 8which'has parallel side walls and endwalls which flare outwardly-anddownwardly, as indicated at 8. -Within this recess I place a.woodenblock 9 which has parallel side walls corresponding to the side walls ofthe recess, and downwardly flaring end walls. The length ofblock attlons Band 6. Ihe se two sections are dethe bottom is equalto the lengthof the re I provi adapted for detachable connection and when cess at thetop, so that the block may be easily inserted in the recess, and whenlodged therein, leaves an inclined space at each end. Into this I pour acompound composed of hot coal tar and sand which will harden whencooling, and which, filling in around the wood block, serves to hold thesame in position. Over this wood block I place a' rail supporting plate10 provided with holes for the reception of spikes, and secure the railin place by'driving the spikes 11 through the plate into the wood block.

Instea of using spikes I may use a steel clamp fastening'as shown on theleft hand side of Figs. 1 and 2, in which plates or bars 12 are providedhaving upper ends 12 designed to be bolted to opposite sides of the webof the rail, and inclined portions 12 resting upon the base of the rail.Below the said ase the bars are provided with downwardly extendingendshaving out-- wardly turned hooked ends 12 designed to hook under thecross reinforcing rods 7.

Having .thus described my invention what I claim is:

1. A railroad tie comprising a pair of du licat'e concrete sections,longitudinal ro s anchored in each section, said rods projectin from theends of said sections and ed respectively with hooks and eyes holdingsaid sections abutting against each other, said sections havingundercut, poi;

tions adjacentthe projecting ends of' the rods permitting a downwardflexing motion of the outer ends of the sections, substantially asdescribed. .2. A railroad tie comprising a pair of duplicate "concretesections, longitudinal rods anchored in each section. said rodsprojecting from the ends of said sections and provided respectively withhooks and eyes adapted for detachable connection, said sectionshm'ingalmtting portions and undercut portions adjacent the projectingends of the rods, and a pin pro ect ing from the abutting portion of theend of one sect-ion and engaging a hole in the abutting portion of theother section, substantially as described.

3. A railroad tie comprising a pair of concrete sections detachablyconnected together, said sections having cross reinforcd an tie barsadapted to' be bolted to .opposite sides of the rail, and having hookedends depending in said recesses and engaging said cross rods.

- Intestimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

, CHARLES D. SMITH. Witnesses:

BERT A. INonAM, Pnoo'roa P. PooL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ive cents each, by addressingthe Gonimlssioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0..

